Of all the blonde characters from Solana, no one expected this news. Prism, Awakener of Sol has hit Living Legend, and will no longer be legal for Classic Constructed play as of Friday July 3rd, 2026.
This marks 4 heroes rotating from the format; both mono Earth mainstays from Rosetta, Florian, Rotwood Harbinger and Verdance, Thorn of the Rose, and the first Brute to bash their way into LL, Kayo, Armed and Dangerous. The meta, unlike that of 2024, is going through consistently healthy churn.
Merciful Retribution
This is the second version of Prism to hit our gaming tables, and the second to hit LL. Prism, Sculptor of Arc Light played much more strictly with her auras as the main source of aggression. Luminaris turned your Instant Auras, and your many many Spectral Shields all into Harmonized Kodachi.
This Prism played much more proactively. We all know the play pattern of attack with a Herald, such as Wartune Herald. It hits and goes to Soul, which allows the Prism player to search their deck for a Figment card, which they can then transform into an angel ally to attack with. That snowball-y gameplay loop takes time to set up, despite her starting on 32 life.
Early speculation about Prism, when Dusk Till Dawn was being shown, was that she would be particularly powerful, and playing cards at instant speed. That reduction in life points is also reflected on just how powerful the angel allies are.
Angelic Attendant
We saw Prism being released alongside 8 Figment cards, although Figment of Tenacity saw almost no play during Prism's competitive lifetime.Each of these Figments could be transformed into an angel ally by Prism's ability (and later on by Angelic Attendant).
Given that these angels all had health stats, meaning they could be attacked like Gravy's zombies or Dromai's dragons. Her being a Light hero also means she wanted to go first often, wanting to put cards in Soul.This tension in board management all added up to Prism being able to stabilise after an early game of her getting relatively beaten down by a more aggressive opponent.
As well as finding those angels, which added to snowbally value, Prism was no stranger to bannings. One of her more powerful card advantage pieces, Tome of Divinity was hit during the infamous book banning in September 2024.
Arc Light Sentinel
Prism was always a polarising hero to play with and against, and often represented a skill check for any player coming up against her for the first time.
I, a Judge and occasional Prism player, have had to talk at length about what Spectra means, and that it does end your turn, and that Go Again doesn't resolve, and yes it's unfair, and no I'm not lying to them. Greatly looking forward to not needing to talk about that as Zyggy Starlight plays very few Spectra Auras.
At the higher levels of play, Prism has acted as a deck which has gatekept a few strategies. Decks that like to go tall with pumps, or ones that struggle with Action Points all tend to struggle into Prism. They can't reasonably clear any Spectra based auras or angels while pressuring the life total.
Another way in which Prism presented consistent pressure was that she taxed players at the deck building stage. "Should I run poppers" is akin to "should I be on AB3 to respect Kano, Dracai of Aether?" A fair amount of the time, the Prism player would use cards like Celestial Reprimand or break Halo of Illumination to find Figment of Triumph to shrink the relative size of a card that would destroy a Phantasm attack.
Factors like these put a lot of onus onto the Prism player. A highly skill intensive deck that rewards devotion and numerous hours playing the Light Illusionist. As such, many Prism players took efforts to find the Marvel Figment cards or the Cold Foil Everfest auras.
Wrap Up
With Prism Living Legend, decks that struggle to the overwhelming value of the stompy Illusionist, like Assassin or Warrior, get significantly better in this metagame. We can also expect to see the need to play high power attacks that don't synergise with your deck significantly diminish. With Usurp the Shadow Throne, the third set, I would not be surprised if there's a 3rd Prism there.
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